Different forms of organ donation

After death, you can donate organs and tissues to people who are ill and need organs or tissues. In the Donor Register, you can indicate which organs and tissues you do or do not want to donate.

Unfortunately, not all organs and tissues are suitable for donation. In such cases, organs and tissues can still be very valuable for medical sciences and scientific research.

The Hersenbank makes brain tissue available to researchers for conducting medical scientific research. In this type of research, scientists look for causes and solutions for neurological and psychiatric brain diseases. Both people with brain disorders and healthy individuals can register for brain donation. For more information, please visit www.hersenbank.nl

What the Hersenbank does with brain tissue, the NLHI-Hartenbank does with heart and vascular tissue. We make this material available to researchers for conducting medical scientific research. In this type of research, scientists look for causes and solutions for cardiovascular diseases. Both people with and without cardiovascular diseases can register for heart donation.

If someone has registered as a Hersenbank donor and as a Hartenbank donor, the donation will take place at the same time. However, you must register separately for both donations. After the donation of the heart and/or brain has taken place, the body is returned to the next of kin for burial or cremation.

You can also choose to make your entire body available to science. In this case, your body goes to the anatomy department of a university medical center. It is then used, for example, for medical education or for the further training of doctors. With this form of donation, the body is not returned to the next of kin. Donation to science requires registration with the anatomical institute. For more information, please visit www.lichaamsdonatie.info.

The different forms of donation are arranged by different institutions (donor register, Hersenbank, Hartenbank, anatomy departments). For example, you are not automatically a donor to the Hartenbank if you have registered as an organ donor via the Donor Register.

For instance, you can be both a Hartenbank donor and an organ donor in the donor register. However, you must register separately for both forms of donation. If you are an organ donor and a Hartenbank donor, and your heart can save a life at the time of death (organ donation), that always takes precedence. If that is not possible, then your heart can be stored in the Hartenbank and used for research.

Donation to the Hersenbank and Hartenbank can take place at the same time. Here too, if you are registered as an organ donor, organ and tissue donation always takes priority. If this is not the case, then donation to the Hersenbank and Hartenbank can take place.

Unfortunately, it is not possible to combine donation to the Hartenbank and/or Hersenbank with ‘making the body available to science’. The anatomical departments cannot use bodies from which organs have already been removed.

For more information, you can visit the website of the Dutch Government.